NR #1996-048: Conference of Top Evangelical Leaders Calls Evangelical
Movement to Repentance for Liberal Theological Drifts
In a historic summit meeting only blocks from the campus of Harvard
University in Cambridge, Mass., 113 conservative Presbyterian, Baptist,
Reformed, Lutheran, and Congregational leaders met to issue a joint
declaration charging that "evangelical churches today are increasingly
dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the Spirit of Christ."
Following the model of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy which
gathered top evangelical leaders to issue a joint statement on the authority
of Scripture, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals issued a five-page
document known as the "Cambridge Declaration." According to the Cambridge
Declaration, evangelicalism was once united by four "solas" of the Protestant
Reformation, namely "Scripture alone," "Christ alone," "grace alone," and
"faith alone." In five "theses," intentionally modelled after the four
"solas" and adding an item on God-centered worship, the signers of the
declaration declared that they will "endeavor to assert anew our commitment
to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism."
NR #1996-048: For Immediate Release
Conference of Top Evangelical Leaders Calls Evangelical Movement to
Repentance for Liberal Theological Drifts
by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer
United Reformed News Service
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (May 21, 1996) URNS - In a historic summit meeting only
blocks from the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., 113
conservative Presbyterian, Baptist, Reformed, Lutheran, and Congregational
leaders met to issue a joint declaration charging that "evangelical churches
today are increasingly dominated by the spirit of this age rather than by the
Spirit of Christ."
Following the model of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy which
gathered top evangelical leaders to issue a joint statement on the authority
of Scripture, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals issued a five-page
document known as the "Cambridge Declaration."
The declaration painted a stark picture of current conditions in the
evangelical world. "In the course of history words change. In our day this
has happened to the word 'evangelical,'" charged the Cambridge Declaration.
"Because of this crisis and because of our love of Christ, His Gospel and His
church, we endeavor to assert anew our commitment to the central truths of
the Reformation and of historic evangelicalism."
"As evangelicals, we call ourselves to repent of this sin and to recover the
historic Christian faith," stated the declaration.
According to the Cambridge Declaration, evangelicalism was once united by
four "solas" of the Protestant Reformation, namely "Scripture alone," "Christ
alone," "grace alone," and "faith alone." In five "theses," intentionally
modelled after the four "solas" and adding an item on God-centered worship,
the signers of the declaration declared that they will "endeavor to assert
anew our commitment to the central truths of the Reformation and of historic
evangelicalism."
Each of the five theses consists of two parts: a "reaffirmation" of a
historic Reformation doctrine and a "denial" of one or more modern
evangelical views which the signatories believed to violate Reformation
teaching.
Among the theses declared by the conference are:
* A reaffirmation that Scripture is "inerrant," that it is "the sole source
of written divine revelation, which alone can bind the conscience," and that
it "alone teaches all that is necessary for our salvation from sin and is the
standard by which all Christian behavior should be measured."
* In opposition to Roman Catholicism and the charismatic movement, a denial
"that any creed, council or individual may bind a Christian's conscience,
that the Holy Spirit speaks independently of or contrary to what is set forth
in the Bible, or that personal spiritual experience can ever be a vehicle of
revelation."
* A reaffirmation that "salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of
the historical Christ alone" and that "his sinless life and substitutionary
atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to
the Father," along with a denial "that the gospel is preached if Christ's
substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and His work is not
solicited."
* A reaffirmation that "in salvation we are rescued from God's wrath by his
grace alone" and that "the supernatural work of the Holy Spiritx brings us to
Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual
death to spiritual life."
* In opposition to the church growth movement and Arminian or Pelagian views
of salvation, three denials that "salvation is in any sense a human work,"
that "human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves [can] accomplish
this transformation," or that faith is "produced by our unregenerated human
nature."
* A reaffirmation that "justification by grace alone through faith alone
because of Christ alone," a declaration that this "is the article by which
the church stands or falls," and a reaffirmation that "in justification
Christ's righteousness is imputed to us as the only possible satisfaction of
God's perfect justice."
* In opposition to Roman Catholicism and to Arminian or Pelagian views of
salvation, three denials that "justification rests on any merit to be found
in us," that justification rests "upon the grounds of an infusion of Christ's
righteousness in us," or "that an institution claiming to be a church that
denies or condemns sola fide can be recognized as a legitimate Church."
* A reaffirmation that "because salvation is of God and has been accomplished
by God, it is for God's glory and that we must glorify Him always" and that
"we must live our entire lives before the face of God, under the authority of
God and for His glory alone."
* In opposition to the church growth movement, "seeker services," and much of
modern evangelical worship, three denials that "we can properly glorify God
if our worship is confused with entertainment, if we neglect either Law or
Gospel in our preaching, or if self-improvement, self-esteem, or
self-fulfillment are allowed to become alternatives to the Gospel."
The Cambridge Declaration closes with severe criticism of certain views in
contemporary evangelicalism and issues a call to repentance.
"We also earnestly call back erring professing evangelicals who have
deviated from God's Word in the matters discussed in the Declaration,"
declared the conference. "This includes those who declare that there is hope
of eternal life apart from explicit faith in Jesus Christ, who claim that
those who reject Christ in this life will be annihilated rather than endure
the just judgement of God through eternal suffering, or who claim that
evangelicals and Roman Catholics are one in Jesus Christ even where the
Biblical doctrine of justification is not believed."
"We have weakened the church by our own lack of serious repentance, our
blindness to the sins in ourselves which we see so clearly in others, and our
inexcusable failure to adequately tell others about God's saving work in
Jesus Christ," according to the Cambridge Declaration. "The Alliance of
Confessing Evangelicals asks all Christians to give consideration to
implementing this Declaration in the church's worship, ministry, policies,
life and evangelism."
Is Evangelicalism Becoming Liberalized?
According to ACE vice-chairman Dr. David Wells, a Congregational professor
at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary north of Boston, the main reason for
calling the summit meeting is that American evangelicalism is on the verge of
becoming liberal.
"This is a somber matter; we are repeating on the evangelical side the very
attitudes which led to the birth of liberalism," said Wells. "The irony is
that the very things which led to the liberalism which has been the great
enemy of evangelicalism early on in this century have been taken into the
evangelical churches. We are fools if we think that what happened in
liberalism will not happen in evangelicalism too unless we repent and recover
the gospel."
According to Wells, part of the problem with modern evangelicalism is that
many of its leaders, while excoriating the current doctrines and practices of
liberalism, are unaware of its roots and history. "If you compare [liberalism
and evangelicalism] as they exist today they are very different," said Wells.
"If you compare evangelicalism today with evangelicalism a century ago where
it was just beginning to become liberalized you find many similarities
because toward the end of the last century there was a spectrum of views with
a cogent doctrinally-shaped evangelicalism on the one side and a cogently
conceived liberalism on the other. In between were those evangelicals who
were becoming liberalized and liberals who still had an evangelical piety."
"It is that middle territory that is being repeated in the evangelical
church today," said Wells.
Wells said that modern evangelicalism and liberalism at its beginnings are
parallel at three main points: a "therapeutic view of the person," "a loss of
transcendence and a triumph of divine immanence," and a loss of the concept
that Scripture is sufficient to govern the ministry of the church. "
"Wherever you have a therapeutic view of the person, where you have an
interest in wholeness rather than holiness, recovery rather than repentance,
sin disappears," said Wells. "[Union Theological Seminary professor] Reinhold
Niebuhr said of liberalism at the early part of this century that 'a God
without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through
a Christ without a cross.' Now at the end of this century we find that the
same is becoming true of evangelicalism."
Lutheran Support
One particularly significant note to the conference was that its base of
support extended well beyond the circles of Calvinistic theology, according
to ACE council member Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, president of Westminster
Theological Seminary in California and a minister in the Christian Reformed
denomination.
"I think the council emerged out of discussions that began rather informally
about what's wrong with contemporary evangelicalism in America, very much
stimulated by David Wells' book, 'No Place for Truth," said Godfrey.
"Generally speaking Lutherans in this country have been somewhat isolated.
That's advantageous to them in avoiding the corruptions of American
evangelicalism but some of that means they are less aware of the variety of
opinions in Reformed circles."
One of the initial ACE council members had been Dr. Robert Preuss, a
longtime conservative leader of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and a
leader of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. When Preuss died
during the initial organization of ACE, he was replaced by two Lutherans: Dr.
J.A.O. Preus III, academic dean at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and Dr.
Gene Edward Veith, dean of the school of arts and sciences at Concordia
University of Wisconsin.
"The reason for our involvement in ACE is interesting," said Veith. "One
thing about us is we have kept very aloof from the ecumenical movements in
the mainline denominations. Some Lutherans have very strict fellowship
requirements; we haven't joined the National Association of Evangelicals and
historically we haven't even had contact with the Reformed people with whom
we have much in common."
Despite the Missouri Synod's heritage of strong conservatism, Veith said
that his denomination of 2.6 million members was facing the same issues faced
by Reformed denominations. "We are having the same problems everyone else is
having with the church growth movement and attempting to alter our worship,"
said Veith. "There's a big movement in our churches of pastors trying to
throw out our traditional liturgies and make them user friendly, trying to
preach user-friendly sermons without emphasis on sin."
"One of the things that we are seeing is that a number of the Lutherans are
looking to the evangelicals for direction," said Veith. "Now if evangelicals
together are themselves criticizing the aberrations of the church growth
movement, it's enormously helpful. It's not just 'old fogey Lutherans,' but
people we associate with the new approaches, who are criticizing some things
about those approaches."
Veith said a major part of the problem was that Lutherans, due simply to
their large numbers, had been able to isolate themselves from American
culture. "We have the biggest system of Christian day schools other than the
Roman Catholics, but it sometimes keeps us from having an impact with others
that we should," said Veith. "A lot of very sincere people have a heart for
evangelism, but it's the gospel that is the issue. The gospel is not always
being proclaimed in some of these new methods. Instead it is biblical steps
for having a successful business and all these therapeutic things."
Veith noted that over a dozen top Missouri Synod conservative leaders had
attended the summit conference and that many had been surprised to find
Calvinists advocating the same things. "One of the problems I see is a
misunderstanding of the Reformed position; Lutherans will sometimes lump all
Calvinists and Arminians together as decisionists," said Veith. "The fact
that we had such a significant representation was very good for our church,
but something that has to be managed very carefully. The Wisconsin Synod
Lutherans would not be able to fellowship. The Missouri Synod people can, but
we don't want to appear ecumenical or as if we are merging these things."
Veith gave Dr. Michael Scott Horton, founder of Christians United for
Reformation and host of the "White Horse Inn" radio talk show, much of the
credit for bringing Lutherans into the discussion. "Michael Horton has been
very influential in all this. There is a Lutheran professor, Rod Rosenbladt,
who is involved with CURE," said Veith. "Among [Horton's] great theological
gifts and what he is bringing to the church is bringing in Reformation
theology. He is drawing on the Lutheran tradition as well"
"Luther's theology of the cross totally destroys the modern gospel of
success. It's in Calvin too, but a lot of people don't realize that," said
Veith.
According to Veith, the discussion between Lutherans and Calvinists has
already resulted in something that would have been unthinkable for until
recently: an invitation for Godfrey to speak on the doctrine of worship next
January at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. "That's very
rare and significant in itself," said Veith. "I can see within our church
good teaching opportunities; that message about worship is exactly what our
seminarians need to hear."
The Lutheran support for the document didn't come without some
qualifications, however. The Lutherans added a two-point addendum to the
Cambridge Declaration specifying that "the solicitation of faith is not part
of the Gospel" and that "we joyfully bind ourselves to the three ecumenical
creeds as a correct articulation of our Trinitarian faith."
"As Lutherans we do believe in our creeds and we want to make that clear,"
said Veith. "The language that we say no creed is binding, that could be
interpreted in a way that said no creed apart from the creeds that are based
on the inerrant Bible. We just can't have people in our circles saying we put
our names to a document that didn't affirm the creeds. We felt that was a
careless thing that might be misconstrued."
The exception on "solicitation of faith," Veith said, was intended to avoid
any appearance of soliciting a "decision for Christ."
"In Lutheran circles we preach to everyone, the law will convict of sin and
the gospel will bring grace," said Veith. "We thought that statement that you
have to solicit faith really weakens the good news of the gospel that Christ
has done it all."
Both Godfrey and Wells regretted that the two items in the Lutheran addendum
were necessary. "There remain some Lutheran concerns which from their vantage
point are significant but I think could have been accommodated if we had time
for some more revisions," said Godfrey. "We respect the consciences of the
Lutherans."
What's Next?
According to Wells, the Cambridge Declaration is intended as a "rallying
call" to spur future action.
"The document is itself not programmatic, that is the work that lies ahead,"
said Wells. "The primary reason is to give a focus to our concern about the
disintegration of evangelicalism and to begin constructing a way forward."
Again following the model of the International Council on Biblical
Inerrancy, Wells said the conference participants would be working to apply
the document in their own ecclesiastical settings. "I think the two lines of
work that seem to be fairly clear are one, we're going to be holding
conferences in different parts of the country, and two, we're going to be
developing a writing program of books and pamphlets," said Wells. "There has
been some talk about the desirability of writing a new Protestant catechism
and it may be that won't come about."
Whatever happens, however, Wells said the stakes are high. "What lies ahead
of evangelicalism if it does not correct its path is it is going to give
birth to a new liberalism," said Wells. "If ACE is effective, on the other
hand, it is going to give birth to a new focussed resurgence of reformational
Christianity. These two paths will become the alternatives between which
people are going to have to choose."
Cross-References to Related Articles:
#1996-022: Top Evangelical Leaders to Convene Summit Near Boston
#1996-040: Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals Announces Speakers
#1996-049: Text of the Cambridge Declaration
Contact List:
Charles Morris, Press Officer, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
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635-7500 * F: (719) 471-4982
Benjamin Sasse, Executive Director, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
2034 East Lincoln Ave. #209, Anaheim, CA 92806 * O: (714) 956-2873 * H:
(714) 956-5111
_______________
Dr. John H. Armstrong, President, Reformation and Revival Ministries
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Rev. Alistair Begg, Senior Pastor, Parkside Church of Cleveland
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543-2164
Dr. James Montgomery Boice, Senior Pastor, Tenth Presbyterian Church
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735-3960
Ervin Duggan, President and CEO, Public Broadcasting Service
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Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary in
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Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
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Dr. John D. Hannah, Professor, Dallas Theological Seminary
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Rev. Michael Scott Horton, President, Christians United for Reformation
2034 East Lincoln, No. 209, Anaheim, CA, 92806 * O: (714) 956-2873 * F:
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Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
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Dr. Robert N. Norris, Senior Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church
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Dr. Wallace Schultz, Senior Preacher, The Lutheran Hour
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Dr. R.C. Sproul, President, Ligonier Ministries
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Dr. Gene Edward Veith, Dean of Arts and Sciences, Concordia University in
Wisconsin
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Dr. David Wells, Professor, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
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